The Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 and PERHILITAN's Role

Keep a Malayan tiger’s skin in your car boot and you are not looking at a fine and a stern letter — you are looking at years in prison and a fine measured in hundreds of thousands of ringgit. That is the sharp end of the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010, the law that decides which animals in Peninsular Malaysia you may touch, keep, sell or study, and which you may not go near without written permission from the state.

The Act — cited formally as Act 716 — replaced the old Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 and handed enforcement to PERHILITAN, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks Peninsular Malaysia. This guide explains how the law sorts species, what paperwork each activity needs, what happens when you get it wrong, and the one jurisdictional fact that trips up most people: the whole thing stops at the shores of the Peninsula.

Where does the Act actually apply?

Section 2 of Act 716 is blunt. The Act “applies to Peninsular Malaysia and the Federal Territory of Labuan” — and it does not apply to wildlife falling within List II of the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution or under the Fisheries Act 1985.

Two consequences follow, and both matter in practice:

• Sabah and Sarawak are outside it. Under Malaysia’s federal structure, wildlife is a state matter in the Borneo states. They run their own separate wildlife laws and their own enforcement departments. A permit issued in Kuala Lumpur means nothing in Kuching, and PERHILITAN officers have no authority east of the South China Sea.
• Fish and most marine life are outside it too. Because the Act carves out Fisheries Act 1985 species, sea turtles, marine fish and similar animals are handled under different laws and agencies.

So when this article says “Malaysia’s wildlife law,” read it as Peninsular Malaysia’s wildlife law. That caveat runs through everything below.

Protected versus totally protected — what’s the difference?

This is the distinction the whole Act turns on, and the two terms are defined precisely in section 3:

• “Protected wildlife” means any wildlife specified in the First Schedule.
• “Totally protected wildlife” means any wildlife specified in the Second Schedule.

Think of it as two locked doors. Protected wildlife sits behind a door you can open with an ordinary licence if you have a legitimate reason. Totally protected wildlife sits behind a much heavier door that opens only with a special permit — an authorisation the Act reserves for narrow, tightly controlled situations.

The Act layers further protection on top. “Immature wildlife” — an animal that does not meet the standard of maturity fixed in the Act’s schedules — and the female of a species are singled out for heavier penalties, because losing a juvenile or a breeding female does more damage to a population. And section 30 provides that the offspring of totally protected wildlife is itself deemed protected wildlife, closing an obvious captive-breeding loophole.

Feature	Protected wildlife	Totally protected wildlife
Where listed	First Schedule	Second Schedule
Authorisation to hunt/keep	Licence	Special permit
Typical examples of activity allowed	Regulated hunting, keeping, dealing under licence	Only limited, specially-permitted uses
Penalty band	Lower	Higher (up to the Act’s maximum)
Female / immature	Heavier penalty than adult male	Heaviest penalties in the Act

When do you need a licence, a permit, or a special permit?

Act 716 uses three different instruments, and choosing the wrong one is itself an offence. The dividing lines are set out in sections 9, 10 and 11.

A licence (section 9) is required to:

• hunt or keep protected wildlife, or take or keep its parts or derivatives;
• collect birds’ nests;
• carry on the business of dealing, or a taxidermy business;
• import, export or re-export protected wildlife or its parts.

A separate licence is needed for each dealing activity, and for each place of business.

A permit (section 10) is required to:

• operate a zoo;
• operate a commercial captive-breeding facility;
• operate a circus or wildlife exhibition;
• carry out research or study on protected wildlife.

A special permit (section 11) — the hardest to obtain — is required to:

• hunt or keep totally protected wildlife, or take or keep its parts;
• import, export or re-export totally protected wildlife or its parts;
• hunt protected wildlife during the close season;
• carry out research on totally protected wildlife;
• use totally protected wildlife in a zoo, circus, exhibition or captive-breeding operation.

The practical takeaway: if the animal is in the Second Schedule, a licence will not save you — you need a special permit, and those are not handed out for private pet-keeping or commercial trade. PERHILITAN issues licences and permits through its state offices and its ePermit system; applications for species bought from licensed shops must be backed by purchase receipts.

What are the penalties?

Act 716 grades punishment on a sliding scale: the more protected the animal, and the more vulnerable the individual (immature or female), the heavier the sentence. The table below sets out the core offences and the penalties as they appear in the consolidated reprint of the Act.

Important: Parliament amended Act 716 in 2022 (in force 2023) and raised several of these ceilings. Treat the figures below as the baseline structure of the law and the floor of your exposure — recent court sentences (see below) run higher. Always check the current consolidated text before relying on an exact number.

Section	Offence	Penalty (reprinted Act)
60	Hunting/keeping protected wildlife without a licence	Fine up to RM50,000 and/or up to 2 years
61	Hunting/keeping immature protected wildlife without a licence	Fine up to RM100,000 and/or up to 5 years
62	Hunting/keeping the female of protected wildlife without a licence	Fine up to RM100,000 and/or up to 5 years
63	Dealing or taxidermy business without a licence	Fine up to RM50,000 and/or up to 2 years
65	Import/export/re-export of protected wildlife without a licence	Fine RM20,000–RM50,000 and up to 1 year
68	Hunting/keeping totally protected wildlife without a special permit	Fine up to RM100,000 and/or up to 3 years
69	Hunting/keeping immature totally protected wildlife	Fine up to RM200,000 and/or up to 10 years
70	Hunting/keeping the female of totally protected wildlife	Fine up to RM300,000 and/or up to 10 years
71	Import/export/re-export of totally protected wildlife	Fine RM30,000–RM100,000 and up to 3 years

Section 68 also carries a special top band. Where the offence involves one of eight flagship species — serow, gaur, Javan rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, clouded leopard or false gharial — the penalty rises to a fine of RM100,000 to RM500,000 and imprisonment of up to 5 years. The immature and female versions of those same species (sections 69 and 70) carry the Act’s stiffest floors, starting at RM150,000 and RM200,000 respectively.

Beyond the headline offences, the Act reaches a long list of methods and circumstances: hunting with poison, nets or non-prescribed traps (section 79), hunting within 400 metres of a salt lick (section 81), hunting from a vehicle (section 82), hunting during prohibited hours (section 77), damaging nests or eggs (sections 74–75), and cruelty to wildlife (section 86). Section 29 separately prohibits possessing snares — the wire traps that do most of the killing in Malaysia’s forests.

What does enforcement look like in practice?

PERHILITAN’s Enforcement Division is the front line. It enforces not only Act 716 but also the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008 (Act 686), Malaysia’s implementation of CITES — the two laws together cover both domestic protection and cross-border trade. Enforcement officers may inspect a licence holder’s premises, seize evidence, and act on the Act’s wide investigation powers.

Two real cases show the range:

• The tiger carcass (2025). Three men were each fined RM250,000 and jailed seven years by the Kota Tinggi Sessions Court for possessing a female Malayan tiger carcass without a special permit, charged under section 70(1). PERHILITAN confirmed it could not issue a permit for the carcass, and the court ordered it disposed of. Prosecutors described it as the first case of its kind since the strengthened penalties took effect.
• The trafficking syndicate (2019). Two Vietnamese nationals arrested in the Pahang forest with 138 animal parts — from leopards, sun bears, serow, tapir and others — plus 22 snares, faced 20 charges under Act 716. The Kuala Terengganu Sessions Court fined them RM1.56 million each, at the time the highest wildlife-crime fine in Malaysian history.

The pattern is clear: courts increasingly treat wildlife crime as serious organised crime, not a licensing slip.

How did we get here — and who is PERHILITAN?

PERHILITAN’s lineage runs deep. Wildlife regulation in the Peninsula dates to a first wildlife law in 1896 and the gazetting of the Chior Wildlife Reserve in 1902. The 1930 Wildlife Commission of Malaya under T.R. Hubback led to a Game Department headquarters in 1936, and to the 1938–39 creation of King George V National Park — today’s Taman Negara. After independence, the state game departments were federalised around the Protection of Wildlife Act 1972, producing the national department we now call PERHILITAN.

Act 716, passed in 2010 (Royal Assent 21 October 2010; gazetted 4 November 2010), was the modern overhaul: it consolidated the schedules, sharpened the protected/totally-protected split, and — crucially — raised penalties far above the 1972 regime, giving PERHILITAN and the courts real deterrent power.

A quick decision framework

Before you keep, buy, sell, breed or study any wild animal in Peninsular Malaysia, work through these questions in order:

1. Is the animal terrestrial wildlife covered by Act 716? (Not fish/marine — those are elsewhere; not in Sabah/Sarawak — those are separate laws.)
2. Is it in the Second Schedule (totally protected)? If yes, you almost certainly cannot keep or trade it privately; you would need a special permit, which is rarely granted. Stop and consult PERHILITAN.
3. Is it in the First Schedule (protected)? If yes, identify your activity — keeping, dealing, taxidermy, import/export, research, zoo — and apply for the matching licence or permit before you act.
4. Is it immature or female? Expect heavier penalties and closer scrutiny.
5. Do you have documentation? Keep purchase receipts and your licence/permit at the registered address; possessing someone else’s licence is itself an offence.

Common mistakes people make

• Assuming a licence covers everything. A licence is not a special permit. Totally protected species need the latter, full stop.
• Assuming national coverage. A Peninsular permit does nothing in Sabah or Sarawak, and vice versa.
• Buying “captive-bred” exotics without paperwork. Offspring of totally protected wildlife is deemed protected wildlife under section 30 — the captive-bred label does not launder the legal status.
• Underestimating parts and derivatives. The Act treats skins, bones, claws, scales and carvings as seriously as live animals; even selling something claimed to contain a totally protected derivative is an offence under section 87.
• Treating snares as harmless. Mere possession of a snare is prohibited under section 29, regardless of whether an animal was caught.
• Relying on old penalty figures. The 2022 amendment raised the stakes; the numbers you find in older summaries may understate today’s exposure.

What’s next

If you are dealing with a specific animal, start by confirming which schedule it falls under and which instrument your activity needs, then contact your state PERHILITAN office directly — the department, not a pet shop or a forum, is the authority on what is and is not permitted. If you suspect illegal hunting, keeping or trade, report it through PERHILITAN’s enforcement hotline or e-complaint channel.

For the cross-border picture — importing, exporting or re-exporting listed species — pair this guide with Malaysia’s CITES-implementing law, the International Trade in Endangered Species Act 2008 (Act 686), which PERHILITAN enforces alongside Act 716. And because penalties have been rising, always verify the current consolidated text of Act 716 and any amendments before relying on an exact fine or jail figure.